


Going Up

by NoShipsLikePartnerships



Category: Pacific Rim (Movies)
Genre: Fluff, Light Angst, M/M, Pining, Pre-Canon, Trapped In Elevator
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-30
Updated: 2020-08-30
Packaged: 2021-03-06 22:13:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,682
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26206225
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NoShipsLikePartnerships/pseuds/NoShipsLikePartnerships
Summary: The lights flicker, then go out entirely.The elevator shudders to a halt.Newt blinks at the dark in disbelief. "Are you serious?"(or: Newt and Hermann get stuck in an elevator during a kaiju attack)
Relationships: Newton Geiszler/Hermann Gottlieb
Comments: 10
Kudos: 77
Collections: Pacific Rim Bingo 2020





	Going Up

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, here is my very late entry for the Pacrim Bingo! I had planned on writing multiple fics over the summer, but it's been a rough few months and unfortunately that didn't work out. So instead, I decided to combine five squares to get bingo for: **Trapped in an elevator + Mess hall + Random J-tech appears + Jaeger goes down + Shatterdome food sucks** (since they all work pretty well together, so hopefully that's okay!)
> 
> Also, pour one out for the vampire au I originally started writing for this, then got stuck after 5000 words. Maybe someday I will manage to finish it.

"Man, the food here sucks," Newt declares.

"And yet," Hermann replies dryly, "you're eating as if it's the last meal you'll ever have."

Newt narrows his eyes as he shoves another forkful of noodles into this mouth, but doesn't answer.

According to Hermann's predictive model, the next attack is expected sometime during the week, so everyone's been a little on edge lately, including Hermann. _Especially_ Hermann. Newt practically had to drag him out of the lab to take a break and get something to eat. Not that the Shatterdome food is especially fantastic, mind you. At least since they're in Hong Kong they don't need to worry much about rationing, so Newt figures that it could be worse.

"Ah," Hermann says suddenly, as something at the other end of the mess hall catches his attention. He stands. "I'll be right back."

Turns out that 'something is actually 'someone.' Newt watches as Hermann makes his way over to a random J-Tech, who's standing by the door. The J-Tech officer's eyes light up as he spots Hermann, and the two of them talk animatedly for a few minutes. More than animated—friendly. _Very_ friendly. He puts a hand on Hermann's shoulder, then says something that makes Hermann laugh. The guy looks a little familiar, now that Newt thinks about it... actually, yeah, that's right, he's stopped by the lab recently, too. Hermann's been spending a lot of time with him lately.

The implications of that sink in, and Newt's heart sinks a little with them.

Okay. Alright. That's fine. Hermann is an adult, and can do whatever (and whoever) he wants, and Newt is not jealous _at all_.

Definitely not.

Nope.

Ugh.

Newt pushes his plate away, his appetite replaced by a sour feeling in his stomach. It's none of his business, really, and he _knows_ that, but it still stings.

His sulking is interrupted as an alarm starts to go off, causing everyone in the mess hall to look around in concern. A kaju is attacking, right fucking _now_. Newt drops his fork, and jumps to his feet. Instinctively, he looks over to where Hermann is, and they lock eyes. Then Newt's gaze drifts over to the J-Tech, whose hand is still gripping Hermann's shoulder, and he turns to run the other way.

Newt hears Hermann shout after him, but doesn't slow down, rushing to the elevator as fast as he can, then hits the 'close door' button. Before the doors can slide shut, though, Hermann catches up, stopping them with his cane so that they open up again to let him in.

Damn it.

Panting, he levels a glare at Newt. "I told you to hold the door!"

"Oh, uh, sorry I...I didn't hear you," Newt says. The doors close, and he pushes the button for LOCCENT. As the elevator begins to rise, he taps his foot impatiently as he watches the number of floors go up on the display. The sooner he's out of there, the better. Even though they _are_ headed to the same place, at least he'll be able to keep his distance before he says something dumb and embarrasses himself.

Five more floors to go. Four more. Three.

The lights flicker, then go out entirely.

The elevator shudders to a halt.

Newt blinks at the dark in disbelief. "Are you fucking serious?"

After a moment, the emergency lights come on. Newt quickly moves over to the control panel, and hits the emergency button repeatedly. "Come on, come on..."

"Newton—"

When nothing happens, he pounds the door angrily with his fist. "Goddamn it!"

Of all the times for them to get trapped together... honestly, Newt kind of feels like the universe is personally out to get him today.

"Newton, calm down."

"I _am_ calm!" Newt shouts back. He closes his eyes and breathes deeply, then tries again at a lower volume. "I'm calm, okay?"

"Are you claustrophobic?" Hermann asks, so gently that it throws Newt off.

Newt considers lying and saying "yes" for all of three seconds before deciding that would be a shitty thing to do. He shakes his head. "No, I just... really don't want to be here right now."

"Mm," Hermann agrees. "I'm anxious to know what's going on out there, myself."

 _Right_ , Newt thinks. There's a kaiju attack happening, which is way more important than whatever stupid hurt feelings he's harbouring right now. The fact that he'd managed to forget that, even momentarily, makes him feel like an asshole. He had his chance with Hermann years ago, and he messed things up, and now he needs to let that go and move on. Hermann clearly has.

Someone finally answers over the intercom, only to tell them that they're going to be stuck there for a while. "Some power lines were hit in the attack, but we are working on getting the generators on," the person on the other end explains, and tells them to sit tight. The intercom click off, and Newt sighs. Great.

"Maybe we can try and pry the doors open," he suggests. It works in the movies, so it's worth a shot.

" _No_ , that's incredibly dangerous."

"Or there's the escape hatch."

"That's even worse! This isn't some action film. All we can do is wait for someone to restore the power and get us moving again."

Newt watches as Hermann leans against the wall of the elevator. "You're taking this pretty well."

"What would you have me do?" Hermann asks. "Shouting about it won't help anything."

Newt snorts. "That's rich, coming from you." Especially considering how many shouting matches they've gotten into this week alone. And it's only Tuesday.

"Excuse me?" Hermann arches an eyebrow. "Are you not the same person who was just shrieking—"

Newt's face flushes. "I don't—"

"—not even a minute ago?"

"I don't _shriek_!" Newt shrieks, then clamps his mouth shut as Hermann smiles smugly.

Glaring, Newt wants nothing more than to wipe that smile off his face. "Oh yeah? Well at least I can actually express emotions like a human being, and not some repressed robot!"

That does the trick. Hermann scowls at him, and opens his mouth to retort.

This goes on for a bit.

Good.

Newt welcomes the distraction, falling back into their usual habits. Anything to keep from thinking about Hermann being with someone who isn't Newt. (Not that Newt really has any right to be upset, but he's petty like that.)

"Sometimes, I don't know why I even bother," Hermann huffs.

"Likewise," Newt says. He sits down on the elevator floor and crosses his arms, pointedly looking away.

"Honestly," Hermann sighs, "you can be such an infant. It's like you're _trying_ to make this as unbearable as possible for the both of us."

He eyes the floor uncertainly, then carefully eases himself down against the wall opposite Newt, with visible effort. Newt's first instinct is to offer to help, but he knows that can be a touchy subject, even more so when they're fighting. "You okay?" he asks instead, once Hermann's settled.

"I'm fine," Hermann bites out, laying his cane beside him. The elevator, while not as big as the ones used for transporting kaiju samples, is still roomy enough that they have space to stretch out.

The silence stretches out, too.

Newt doesn't wear a watch, and he forgot his phone in the lab, so he has no way of knowing just how much time passes. He could probably just ask Hermann, who _does_ wear a watch, but that would involve talking to him, and Newt's still a bit pissed.

The feeling appears to be mutual.

Normally, they'd have a cooling off period, once they each retreated to their respective sides of the lab, and it's not like this is the worst argument they've had, anyway—not by a long shot. Seeing as they don't really have that option, though, they have no choice but to sit with the thick tension between them.

Without his phone to keep him busy, and without Hermann to talk to, Newt's left alone with his thoughts, which is not always a good thing, especially in a situation like this. For all of his bravado, and the confidence that he outwardly displays to the world, there's a lot of self-doubt and insecurities, too. Especially when it comes to relationships. Or, in this case, lack of one. Someone else's? Whatever. The point is, he'd really rather not be thinking about any of that right now, but apparently his brain has teamed up with the universe in trying to ruin his day.

One thought rings louder than the others: _You did this to yourself._

If he hadn't screwed up their first meeting, if he hadn't purposefully antagonized Hermann, if they'd just had lunch in the lab like Hermann wanted, if Newt had just taken the fucking stairs instead, he wouldn't be in this mess.

Though if he'd taken the stairs, then Hermann would be stuck here by himself. Or maybe he'd be with that J-Tech. They'd probably find better ways than this to pass the time.

"Shut _up_ ," Newt grumbles to himself, really not needing those mental images. Hermann frowns at him. "Not you."

The frown deepens, but Hermann doesn't say anything, and Newt tries to keep his internal monologue _internal_. He closes his eyes, tips his head back against the wall, and waits.

"Bloody hot in here," Hermann mutters sometime later, and starts to tug his jacket off.

It's true—since the power's out, it makes sense that the air conditioning would be off. Newt's got a higher tolerance to both hot and cold, but Hermann's much more sensitive to each.

Off goes the jacket, soon followed by Hermann's sweater-vest. When he reaches up to undo the top button of his shirt, Newt makes a strangled sound in his throat, and tries to cover it up with a cough.

Hermann glances over at him. "Are you alright? Your face is red."

"Like you said, it's hot in here." Newt fans himself for good measure, then begins to roll his sleeves up. He braces himself for the usual griping about how 'distasteful' his tattoos are, but is met with silence instead. When he looks back up, he sees Hermann studying Newt's arms closely, and maybe it's just the emergency lights, but Newt can swear that his face is a bit red, too. Hermann quickly looks down at his watch.

"I hope they'll get us out of here soon."

"Yeah, I'm sure you're in a hurry to get out of here and go see your boyfriend," Newt says, before he can stop himself. And there it is, the dumb thing he was hoping _not_ to say, that his brain even flagged and _told_ him not to say, but clearly his mouth did not get the memo.

"Boyfriend?" Hermann blinks at him, startled.

"He's a lucky guy. I mean, personally I think you could do better, but..."

"Newton, what on Earth are you talking about?"

"That guy in the mess hall? You know, the J-Tech you were flirting with before."

"Flirting? Goodness, no, whatever gave you that idea? We were talking about Jaeger coding," Hermann explains, a touch exasperated and more than a little bewildered. "I made some modifications after the last attack, to improve the response time between the pilots and the interface. We've been working on it together."

Newt remembers that the last one was particularly bad—it took two Jaegers to bring the kaiju down, and only one Jaeger had made it back to base, though it had been pretty heavily damaged. Even though they'd technically won, it still felt like a loss, and Hermann had beat himself up about it for days afterward. No wonder he was so eager to get out of there and see how they were doing. "Oh."

"Yes, ' _oh.'_ Perhaps if you didn't always jump to conclusions... wait," Hermann says slowly, "is _that_ what's had you upset this whole time?"

"Um."

Newt wonders if it isn't too late to try the escape hatch, after all. Barring that, he would be okay with the floor opening up and dropping him down the elevator shaft _any_ time now, please and thank you.

Hermann continues to stare at him. "For someone so smart, you can be incredibly ignorant sometimes." He shakes his head. "And even if we had been flirting, what is it to you? Why would you even care?"

"Okay, first of all, of course I care. I want you to be happy." _Even if it's not with me_ , Newt thinks miserably. "And second of all... dude, you're my friend. The closest thing to a best friend I've ever had, probably. You make me want to bash my head against the wall sometimes, but there's still no one else I'd rather save the world with. But whatever, it's fine if you don't think of me the same way. I know I can be a lot—"

Hermann holds up a hand to stop him. "Newton. I never said that you didn't care about me or my well-being. I just don't understand why you would care so much about _that_ specifically, unless... Newton," he says again, much more softly, "are you jealous?"

"I..." Newt hesitates, then decides that there's not really any point in denying it anymore. If it pines like a duck, and sulks like a duck... "Yeah, I guess I am. Like I said, I care about you. A lot."

For a few seconds, Hermann is speechless. He quickly recovers with a frown. "And you thought that running away would be the best course of action?"

Newt shrugs in response. Not one of his finest moments, sure, but it was fight or flight, and he's never been much of a fighter. Well. Not physically, at least. "Then... you aren't dating?"

"No," Hermann says, staring at Newt meaningfully, "he isn't really my type."

Newt feels something like hope stir in his chest. He grins. "So what you're saying is that you're single?"

"Yes."

"Can I kiss you?" Newt asks, suddenly feeling bold.

" _Yes_." Hermann rolls his eyes, but blushes a little. "In case it wasn't obvious by now, I care about you too."

"As more than a friend?"

"As more than a friend," Hermann confirms with a smile. This time, Newt wants nothing more than to keep it there. He scrambles over to Hermann's side of the elevator to do exactly that, and kisses him soundly.

It's a bit thrilling, in a way, knowing that the power could come back at any minute. They don't know how long they'll have, but Newt figures that's true in the grand scheme of things, anyway. The future is uncertain, so all they can do is make the most of things, and grab the happiness that's in front of them right here, right now.

Eventually they feel a jolt, parting as the lights come back on, and the elevator starts moving again.

"Their timing is impeccable," Hermann mutters. Newt laughs, his face pressed against Hermann's shoulder, before remembering what they were on their way to in the first place. He sobers, and helps Hermann up.

As soon as the doors open, they hurry down the hall and into LOCCENT for an update. The mood in there doesn't seem especially sombre or anything, so Newt's optimistic but doesn't want to get his hopes up just yet. He and Hermann make a beeline for Tendo's workstation.

"What happened?" Newt asks breathlessly.

Tendo turns them in surprise. "Things were a bit touch and go at fist, but the kaiju was destroyed and both pilots are just fine."

"Oh, thank goodness." Hermann's shoulders sag with relief. Newt claps him on the back, and Hermann turns, shooting a shaky grin his way.

"Yeah—" Tendo pauses, taking in their appearances—Hermann, carrying his jacket and sweater-vest under one arm, top button still undone, Newt with his messy hair and tie askew, hand still lingering on Hermann's back. "What happened to you two?"

"Uh, elevator problems."

"I see. Everything work out okay?"

"Yeah," Newt says, and meets Hermann's gaze with a smile, "I think it did."

**Author's Note:**

> You can also find me on tumblr @chalkstardust and twitter @kaijublueberry


End file.
